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Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Electoral Reform Talks in Brampton

On Sunday August 21, 2016
Brampton's five Members of Parliament met at a recreation centre with members
of the public to discuss electoral reform. The MPs were joined by the
Parliamentary Secretary for Democratic Reform Mark Holland (LPC - Ajax, ON).
The MPs were hosting a town hall and hoping to educate the public briefly on
electoral reform and get feedback on what their constituents' desires and preferences
are.

MPs call the meeting to order

The crowd of about 50
people could probably be divided into two camps. The first were the curious
citizens - the kind that attends a public event out of some sort of civic
curiosity. The second group, which I am an obvious member of, were those
engaged in the electoral reform debate who wanted their elected officials to
make the decision they wanted. Fair Vote Canada, an advocacy group for
electoral reform, advertised the event extensively to its membership in the
region. I think it is fair to say that the MPs were hoping to get more feedback
from the general public.

The beginning of the
presentation consisted of the MPs laying out how our current system worked and
explained some of the various options on the table, pausing to take feedback
from the public on specific discussion questions. During the election the
Liberals committed that 2015 would be the last election held under the
first-past-the-post system. This commitment was reiterated by Mr. Holland when
directly asked.

There were a few defenders
of the current system, but I would say they were in the minority. The real
problem with electoral reform is that people can agree that FPTP is unfair, but
cannot come to a consensus over which position is best. Some proportional
system seems widely desired at the meeting, but that might be my own bias
skewing what I observed.

Options ranging from
ranked ballot, single transferable vote, open and closed list proportional
representation and mixed-member proportional were all considered. If any one
system had a plurality of support I would say it was mixed-member proportional,
which is also the system I support. This makes sense given the contingent of
Fair Vote Canada supporters, Greens and New Democrats at the meeting.

Two topics I did not
predict came to discussion: e-voting and mandatory voting. To my surprise very
few people were against mandatory voting. I would say the crowd was split
between ambivalence and support for mandatory voting. Mandatory voting
traditionally is accompanied by a small penalty for those who do not vote.
Several members of the audience were convinced that instead of a penalty that
voters should be rewarded for voting. Philosophically I find the notion abhorrent.
Paying people to vote seems to totally violate the principles that should be at
the foundations of any democratic system, but that's just my view. The notion
seemed oddly popular. There was also considerable support for e-voting, which I
found distressing. The one comment I made was motivated to offer a counterpoint
for advocates of e-voting. Mass e-voting seems a way to quickly put our entire
democracy at risk because of its inherent insecurity and risks. Many dismissed
my concerns, but several of the MPs seemed to share my concerns.

I must admit I was
generally impressed with the performance of the MPs. I was also happy to meet
my Member of Parliament for the first time. A few of the MPs met with me
afterwards to thank me for my comments and share their thoughts. It was a
pleasant moment to be reminded that MPs, in many ways, are ordinary people that
anyone can talk to.

Overall people wanted a
system which was not too complicated, secure and fair. Simplicity is the great
virtue of our current system, despite its distortions. Fairness is the real
issue, which people cannot agree upon. Ultimately it is a question of whether or
not one favours a consensus form of government or majoritarian government. Ruby
Sahota (LPC - Brampton North, ON) sits on the electoral reform committee, so
perhaps she will be thinking of this town hall and others when the time to
deliberate comes up. As always, I recommend constituents contact their MPs and
share their thoughts because some change is coming to the system and your input
is requested.